I'm wondering if anyone with bipolar type 1 has ever taken Latuda, and what your thoughts/feedback on this are?
I had an emergency appointment with my psychiatrist today and he said he was going to add 20 mg of Latuda to my mix below (all meds below, including Seroquel XR and Tegretol XR). He said that it was his hope that perhaps in the future we could cut down on my Seroquel XR and add more Latuda, if it is found to be helpful.
A concern I expressed to my psychiatrist was that all I ever heard of Latuda was that it was used for bipolar depression. I had never heard of it being helpful for mania at all. Although I have had some significant depression lately, I've also been extremely agitated. I am prone to full blown mania, and especially mixed features. He argued that since Latuda is an "antipsychotic" it would help with both the depressive and manic sides of the illness, but the Latuda website (and everything else I have ever heard of Latuda) seemed solely focused on bipolar depression. So, I called Latuda's medical department and asked about this, and why Latuda ONLY advertises its use for bipolar depression, and not mania. The pharmacist rep there said that it is "Only indicated for bipolar depression". So I asked, "So it's useless for mania or mixed manic episodes?" and she repeated that for mania or mixed episodes it is usually the recommendation that person take a medication like "Depakote", etc. Well, Depakote is the medication from HELL! Plus, I am on Tegretol XR and though Tegretol XR helps keep musical hallucinations from happening for me, it has not been even close to sufficiently helpful at keeping mania away, nor has it been helpful at curbing manias. I am on the highest dose I can be of Tegretol XR without having double vision. My psychiatrist said he does not want to increase my Seroquel XR above 600 mg.
I am feeling a little angry at my psychiatrist. I almost wonder if he really knows enough about Latuda. He said that he has not really prescribed it much in the past and that he has more "inherited" some patients on Latuda. So I asked if those patients had a similar flavor of bipolar disorder as me. He said "Not exactly".
Hey, I'm fine with taking a small dose of 20 mg Latuda to get rid of any depressive stuff going on, but at the same time I don't want the bugger to make me full blown manic. I'm already agitated enough as it is. Plus, the copay for me would be $75 per month. I hope to use a coupon card to reduce it to $15, but still...I don't want the medication to be further destabilizing.
Has Latuda itself actually been excessively activating for anyone here?
I left a message for my psychiatrist telling him everything that Latuda Medical rep said to me.
Last edited by Anonymous46341; May 13, 2019 at 02:31 PM.
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